Death toll in new Bangladesh anti-government protests rises to 24

DHAKA - Thousands of Bangladeshi protesters demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resign clashed with pro-government supporters Sunday, with at least 24 people killed in confrontations using sticks, knives, and guns.

Protesters danced on the roof of an armoured car and, unlike the past month of rallies that repeatedly ended in deadly crackdowns, soldiers and police in several cases did not intervene.

A respected former army chief also demanded the government withdraw troops and allow protests in a hugely symbolic rebuke of Hasina.

Demonstrators in Dhaka, surrounded by a tightly packed and cheering crowd, waved a Bangladeshi flag on top of an armoured car as soldiers watched, according to videos on social media verified by AFP.

Rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem in July that killed more than 200 people in some of the worst unrest of Hasina's 15-year tenure.

Troops briefly restored order, but crowds returned to the streets in huge numbers this month in a non-cooperation movement aimed at paralysing the government.

Vast crowds of protesters, many wielding sticks, packed into Dhaka's central Shahbagh Square on Sunday, with street battles in multiple sites as well as in other key cities, police said.

Police have ordered a nationwide curfew beginning at 6:00 pm (1200 GMT), while mobile internet access was widely curbed in a bid to frustrate the organisation of rallies.

'BATTLEGROUND'

Violence on Sunday took the total of people killed to at least 230.

"There were clashes between students and the ruling party men," police inspector Al Helal told AFP, saying two young men were killed in Dhaka's Munshiganj district.

"One of the dead was hacked in his head and another had gunshot injuries."

Another policeman, who asked not to be identified, said "the whole city has turned into a battleground".

Two people were killed in the northern city of Kishioreganj, where protesters torched a ruling party office, police said.

Police and doctors also reported deaths elsewhere in Dhaka, in the northern districts of Bogra, Pabna, Rangpur and Sylhet, as well as in Magura in the west, Comilla in the east, and Barisal and Feni in the south.

Asif Mahmud, one of the key protest leaders in the nationwide civil disobedience campaign, earlier asked supporters to be ready after last month's rallies were crushed by police.

"Prepare bamboo sticks and liberate Bangladesh," he wrote on Facebook Sunday.

Some former military officers have since joined the student movement and ex-army chief General Ikbal Karim Bhuiyan turned his Facebook profile picture red in a show of support.

"We are deeply concerned, troubled and saddened by all the egregious killings, torture, disappearances and mass arrests that have been tormenting Bangladesh over the past three weeks," Bhuiyan told reporters Sunday, in a joint statement alongside other senior ex-officers.

"We call the incumbent government to withdraw the armed forces from the street immediately," Bhuiyan said, adding that people "no longer fear to sacrifice their lives".

"Those who are responsible for pushing people of this country to a state of such an extreme misery will have to be brought to justice."

'LIVE FREELY'

Current army chief Waker-uz-Zaman told officers at military headquarters in Dhaka on Saturday the "Bangladesh Army is the symbol of trust of the people".

"It always stood by the people and will do so for the sake of people and in any need of the state," he said, according to an army statement, which gave no further details and did not say explicitly whether the army backed the protests.

The protests have grown into a wider anti-government movement across the South Asian nation of some 170 million people.

The mass movement includes people from all strata of Bangladesh society, including film stars, musicians and singers. Rap songs calling for people's support have spread widely on social media.

"It is no longer about job quotas," said Sakhawat, a young female protester who gave only one name, as she scrawled graffiti on a wall at a protest site in Dhaka, calling Hasina a "killer".

"What we want is that our next generation can live freely in the country."

A group of 47 manufacturers in the economically vital garment sector said Sunday they stood in "solidarity" with the protesters.

Obaidul Quader, general secretary of Hasina's ruling Awami League, has called on party activists to gather "in every district" nationwide to show their support for the government.

Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Demonstrations began in early July over the reintroduction of the quota scheme, which reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups. It has since been scaled back by Bangladesh's top court.